Source tree from Abdullah A. (via Jeannine S.), May 2016
This could be a story about the beauty of the Black Sphinx Date Palm. That it is the best date I have ever eaten. Or about how the Black Sphinx date is an important part of the agricultural history of Phoenix.
But it won't ... This instead will be a story about the awesomeness of plant people.
I had been looking for a Black Sphinx date palm for about a year (for all the reasons listed above). But the mother trees have to pup and an experienced date grower needs to extract the pup at the right time while preserving the roots. It is labor intensive. And mother trees don't pup continuously, so it isn't like there is a lot of supply out on the market.
But Abdullah is an experienced date grower and he did have some rooted pups available. But the thing is, I did not know it. My friend Jeannine though knew that I was on the hunt for one. She already had one in her yard and she was on the hunt for another rare date palm. She found out that Abdullah had the one she was looking for, paid him a visit to pick it up, and saw that he had a Black Sphinx available too. She knew that I was looking for one, so she bought it! She didn't want to take a chance on it not being available later. Then she let me know the situation, so that I could come over to her place to get it. And she let me have it at her cost. That was really a friend going out of their way for another friend. I can't express how much I appreciated that.
That's the story I want to tell.
